Man of Action
by Trinxy
Summary: The morning after the Final Frontier. Castle wakes up and recovers from the night of crazy cosplay. What is happening with him? Is he loosing his mind? AU from the episode Final Frontier. My entry for CastleFicathon 2013 challenge. Cover art by pananana
1. Chapter 1 - A brand new day

**Chapter One**

**A brand new day **

* * *

The alarm blares beside his bed. He lets loose an annoyed groan and reaches for her phone to turn the damn thing off. He checks the time as well. Oh god, it's 10:00am. It's too early. He closes his eyes and sighs. He doesn't want to get out of bed. He runs his hand over his face, trying to force the sleepiness away.

Opening his eyes again, he takes in his surroundings. He is in his bedroom. The yellow light is streaming through the curtains, creating the peaceful ambiance in there. The spot next to him is empty. Kate. She was here during the night. Yes. He can see it. The blankets are bunched in the middle of the bed and in the spot where she is supposed to be remains only a faint impression of her light body.

Ah. He remembers now. Somebody called her at 7:00am. Precinct. He vaguely remembers having a conversation with her before she left. Something about her leaving and him bringing the coffee to the precinct when he wakes up. Coffee. Yes. When he wakes up.

_Uh. Okay._

_He should wake up._

_Five more minutes._

He agrees with himself and closes his eyes again. _Oh. That feels good, yes._

He wakes up ten minutes later when his alarm starts to go off again. Groaning, he turns the alarm off the second time and sits up in the bed. He rubs his eyes and surveys the room. Oh. It's messy. They had a pretty rough night as it turns out. And Kate, leaving so early, didn't have time to clean anything up. Lt. Chloe's dress is rumpled on the armchair, in the same position as they left it the night before - after he had peeled it off of Beckett's body. Hmmmm.

The memories of last night flood his foggy brain and they make him smile.

He had no idea how cool it is to have a geeky girlfriend. All of the cosplay they had the night before...

_Uhm._

Yeah, he should stop thinking about her body quivering under his while she was whispering dirty lines from _Nebula 9_ and _Star Wars_ into his ears. This had to be one of the hottest nights they had spent together since last spring.

Shaking his head to force away the waves of arousal, he pushes the covers away and hangs his feet over the edge of the bed. He still doesn't want to start the day. The bed feels just too good. He can almost hear the cream-coloured silky sheets calling him back. He slides a hand over his face.

But it's already 10:00am. And he had promised to bring Beckett her coffee when he woke up eventually.

His feet touch the soft carpet and he stands up, stretching himself as much as he can to make the sleep go away. His knee pops, so does his shoulder. Shaking, he steps away from the bed, heading towards the kitchen.

Suddenly there is something on the ground with hair and a rubber face that causes him to trip. His foot gets stuck on the face of the creaver and he stumbles few steps before he can regain his balance.

Letting loose a string of curse words, he shakes his fist at the damn thing. Kate had taken it off and just left it there so that he could stumble on it. She probably did it on purpose, yes. Just for that, no vanilla for her coffee today.

He limps to the center of the room, still muttering nasty words at the creaver mask. He picks up his boxers and pulls them on, covering his nakedness from the chilly air. He finds his shirt somewhere on the other side of the room. Chuckling, he pulls it on. _Boy_, were they crazy last night. The whole room looks like a battlefield, clothes scattered around the floor like something had exploded.

Not even bothering to clean anything up, he shakes his head and makes his way out of the bedroom through his study. He yawns loudly as he enters the kitchen, walking towards the coffee maker. He pushes few buttons, but before he can switch the thing on he discovers he is missing one important thing - a coffee cup. He looks around the counters, but no cup there. Huh.

Then he discovers one on top of the higher counter. Kate must have left it there. He heads to the counter, placing his hand to the light stone surface before it reaches the cup.

He's tired and sluggish and he doesn't want to move all the way to the other side of the counter.

He stops, just wishing that the cup would move by itself so he doesn't have to. He looks at the mug again.

The cup jerks slightly.

_Huh._

Then it slides into his palm, like something is pulling it there.

_Double huh._

_What?_

He releases the cup as if it had burned his hand, the ugly yellow thing clatters around the counter as its rolls away from him.

_What the hell is going on here? Whaaa? He can move things with his mind?_

Surely, he must be imagining it.

Shaking his head again, furiously this time, he is trying to force the remnants of the sleep away together with the hallucinations he must be having right now.

He checks the surface of the counter. The counter must have been wet and the cup just had slid into his hand because of it. There has to be some kind of logical reason for the cup to move.

_Yes._

That must be the reason. For sure. Where is Beckett when he needs her the most?

_No._

As his palm slides over the surface, the counter seems to be as dry as it can be.

_Huh._

_What the what?_

He stares at the cup.

No way it could have moved on its own. It doesn't have wheels, does it?

Widening his eyes, he takes the cup in his hand and looking inside, outside. Then he turns it over looking for any explanation as to how it could have moved on its own.

_No._

It's an average cup. With a little bit of coffee in the bottom. Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary.

He places the cup down on the counter again and gives it 'the look'. His eyes squinted, he just stares it.

_What did he do when the cup moved the first time?_

His eyes widen when he remembers that he placed his hand on the counter and wished that the cup could come closer to him. And it did. It moved into his hand.

_Could that be it? Is it this simple?_

Slowly, he lowers his arm to the smooth surface of the kitchen counter.

Nothing happens. The cup just sits there, mocking him from afar.

_Why isn't it working? How did it work before? Why?_

_Maybe he has to wish really hard?_

He closes his eyes and imagines the cup, flying into his palm, trying to put all of his energy into this one thought. He hears a rattle from the general direction of the yellow coffee cup and he opens his eyes just to see the it landing in his open hand.

_Woah._

_Dude._

He can move things with his mind?

_He can move things with his mind!_

The look of his a mixture of utter surprise and the childish glee. He looks like he had just discovered the fountain of youth or something equally important. His mouth hangs open and he is staring at the coffee cup again.

"WOAH," he whispers aloud. "This can't be happening."

He places the cup down on the edge of the counter.

"Ok. One more time," he says to himself. He runs to the other end of the stone surface and straightens his arm, ready to catch the sliding pottery.

He squints his eyes and stares at the cup. Sure enough, the cup jerks from its place and slides to Castle's hand in hurried speed.

He grabs the cup and smiles widely. His dream has come true.

"Oh my god," he exclaims, staring at the cup.

"I have a superpower!"

* * *

**A/N: Ok. Bare with me. This is my first ficathon entry. I am trying to write more, so that's why I took up the challenge. Although, this is a half-a-ficathon for me - my personal score is to try to make it to 25 000 words. So 23 500 words to go. Woop!**

**Thank you for lousiemcdoogle (the queen of prompts) for pushing me into this direction.  
**

**Please tell me what you think of this idea, is it worth continuing? Thank you. **


	2. Chapter 2 - Persuasion

**Chapter 2**

_**Persuasion**_

_Oh god, oh god make it stop._

This is all he can think about when he arrives to the 12th precinct. The whole way has been a nightmare on top of a nightmare for him. People are crazy. Or at least he thinks that way.

There is so much noise in the Big Apple, he can't stand it. During the brief time it took for him from changing his clothes to getting out of his loft, he discovered that in addition to the telekinesis thingy, he had developed a super hearing as well.

And now he is in agony. He can't filter out anything. He hears everything._ Everything._

People talking in the street, the hum of the cars, the annoying screeching of the ambulance two blocks away. He can even hear the little boy dropping his pennies on the ground several hundred yards from him.

"Ugh," he grumbles, stepping into the building in hope that somehow this craziness would stop.

_Oh, please make it stop._

The door closes behind him and there it is - much needed relief for him - silence. He leans back against the door and breathes through his nose a few times, trying to calm his racing heart. He must have walked there in a record time. But the noise. Ugh. He couldn't stand it.

But the break from the torture is short lived. The elevator in the far end of the room closes its doors and ventures upwards with a barely audible hum. For normal people.

For him, it sounds like a freight train, moving at full speed. That is not normal. At all.

He covers his ears, trying to muffle out as much of the noise as he can. But it doesn't help. Closing his eyes, he wishes it would stop. It's too much. Too, too much.

Suddenly, the world silences around him.

The elevator stops moving and silence surrounds him again.

_Huh?_

Can he tune out the noise? _Interesting._

Slowly, he walks to the closed doors of the elevator shaft, pushing the button to call it downstairs.

It descends with a normal hum. Well. What can be called normal. It sounds like it does every day. The rattle of the metal doesn't sound so loud anymore.

The doors open with a whisper, he steps in, a suspicious look on his face. He doesn't trust this monstrosity. _Nuh uh._

It tried to kill him with the roar of its movements. And it wasn't even the first time.

But now, it is acting so silent and sweet again. Almost as if it were innocent._ Innocent my ass._

He pushes the button for 4th floor, to the homicide bullpen.

Hmmm... can he really control his super hearing?

_Let's try._

He closes his eyes again and concentrates on his listening, trying to hear more, like it was, before he silenced the world around him.

And there it is. The loud scream of the metal against metal pierces his ears joined by the roar of the elevator engines.

_Argh!_

_Too loud!_

_Turn it off, turn it off!_

He keeps thinking about the silence now, trying to filter the jumbled noise around him.

He removes his hands from his ears. The elevator is still going up.

But … there is silence again. There. Sweet state of silence.

_Oh! It worked! It worked!_

The ding of the bells announces the arrival of the elevator to its final destination, scaring the crap out of Castle who wasn't expecting the sound to be so loud. Apparently he still needs to work on the filtering thing. But so far, the mental blockage has worked for him._ Let's see how it turns out to be later._

He steps out of the elevator and makes his way quickly to Beckett's desk. The detective is standing in front of the murder board, filling in the space between the few pictures already attached to the white planes of the board.

"Beckett!" he announces himself as he approaches. She can barely turn herself around before he is at her side.

Without wasting any time, he grabs her wrist and starts dragging her towards the empty interview room.

"Castle!" she hisses, trying to break herself free. "What the hell?"

"Come on! I need to tell you something!" he tries to reassure her, calm her down before her fury can ignite.

"You know, you could have said it to me before you decided to go all caveman and drag me around like a sack of potatoes," she scolds, still trying to resist the pull of his hand and break herself free. "Castle, let go of me."

"No, I need to talk with you, alone," he presses the matter, a smile creeping onto his face. He can barely contain his excitement. Oh, this is just golden. He needs to tell her. Now.

"Castle, release my hand and I will walk to the interview room myself. You don't need to drag me."

He argues, "But this is so much faster. And funnier."

"Funnier?" she rolls her eyes in annoyance as he is still not letting her go. "What's gotten into you today?"

As they reach the interview room, he shuts the door behind her, closing them into the large room. He covers the windows with the blinds and steps to do the same with the glass surfaces in the other end of the room.

"Castle," she sighs, "what was so damn important that you had to drag me away from the murder board? I was just adding the last details. You could have waited till I was done!"

He turns to look at her. Oh, he has missed her. He barely saw her this morning. Flickering images stream into his mind of what he saw in the wee hours of the morning. But that wasn't enough. And now, she is staring him with this annoyed and sexy look that makes her utterly adorable. Uh. But … first things first. He has to tell her why he is here. Why he needed to drag her away, why it was so important. His whole being is vibrating with excitement that he can barely contain.

"Kate," he starts, breathing in before he continues.

She looks right into his eyes, trying to figure out what is wrong with him.

"I have super powers," he blurts out, smiling widely, his hands shaking with joy.

He sees the flicker of emotions rush through her face, the widening of her eyes in surprise before she can even think about the implications of what he just said.

Maybe there's hint of interest there too.

Then, her whole demeanor changes. The spark and adoration fades from her eyes and her face portrays annoyance again.

"Wow, Castle," she says in disbelief. "And here I thought it was something important. Next thing you're going to say is that you can fly, too." She rolls her eyes and shakes her head to stress her words.

"No, not yet," he answers quickly, trying to shrug off her sarcasm.

"But..." he starts when he sees her moving closer to the door. He needs to stop her. He needs to make her believe right now that he is not making this up. She won't believe him anyway, unless he can prove it to her.

"But _what_?" she sighs in annoyance.

_Uh oh_, he knows that voice. It's not good. He freezes for a moment to think of exactly what to say to her. This calls for careful approach.

When he doesn't say anything and just stares at her, she continues. "Castle, I don't have any time for this nonsense."

"It's not nonsense!" he defends himself. "I can prove it!"

"Yeah?" she drawls out, unimpressed. "Just like you proved it when you said you could beat me in sparring. I remember well how that turned out."

He winces. Yes. That turned out well. He ended up with a bloody cheek and a sprained wrist in addition to losing to Beckett.

"No, no!" he steps closer to her, trying to make her believe. "Just hear me out, I am not making this up."

She gives him a pointed stare but doesn't say anything. He takes it as a green light for explaining himself. He doesn't make her wait. Storytime.

"I woke up this morning. You were gone. I went to make myself a world famous Castle coffee when I realised that there were no clean cups... except yours, that you left on the counter. There it was. I was too tired to go and get it. And I just leaned over the counter. And it flew into my hand."

"Flew into your hand?" she repeats, still not believing him. "Castle, how much whiskey have you had this morning. Are you sure you didn't fall out of bed and hit your head?"

"Beckett," he steps even closer to her, touching her left arm with his hand. "You gotta believe me, it happened! I tried it several times. And it worked. And when I was walking down here, I realised I have super hearing too. I can hear everything."

She arches up her eyebrow and shifts her jaw. She isn't buying anything.

Oh very well then, he will dish out everything.

"It was cool for like first few minutes, but do you realise how many sounds there are in the world? Everything makes so much noise. The cars, the buildings, and don't even get me started on people..."

She opens her mouth to say something to disrupt his monologue, but he continues before she has the chance, "But … somehow I got the hang of it. I think I can filter out the overwhelming noises."

She is silent now and that's not a good sign. He needs to do something. Fast.

"Look, I know you don't believe me," he tries to reassure her.

"Yeah, you could say that," she replies sarcastically, biting the inside of her mouth.

"Let me prove it to you," he begs.

She considers what he is saying for few moments, her gaze travelling from his eyes to his mouth and back to his eyes.

"Okay, prove it. I wanna see it myself," she sighs, mentally giving in on his crazy theory.

"Ok," he nods and turns around to observe his surroundings.

He notices a little blue cup on the table, probably some detective had forgotten the mug on the table and not bothered to pick it up there. He looks at the mug and then he turns his attention to her.

"Okay, see the blue cup there," he waits till she nods at him, "I will move it from the table to the shelf. Pay attention."

She doesn't reply, but stares at the mug.

It's good enough for him. The show-off is a go-go.

He takes in the position, turning his body towards the table and squinting his eyes to stare at the mug. He tries. So hard. Just like he did it at home several times. It had worked there. It never failed. The yellow cup always flew into his hand with no problem.

But this mug doesn't move.

Not even an_ inch_.

He gives it one more go, trying to concentrate harder than before. He needs it to move. He needs it to fly from the table to shelf. Come on. Move! Move, you damn cup!

The stubborn cup stays at its place. Nothing works.

"Wow, Castle. I can see your magical skills from far away," she doesn't even bother to suppress her overflowing sarcasm in her voice. "Look, I got work to do, so go get yourself a cup of coffee and join me at my desk, okay?"

She opens the door and waltzes out of the room.

"But Beckett!" he yells after her. "I really do have super powers!"

"Yeah," he hears her answer as she is walking away. "And pigs can fly!"

"I had super powers..." he mutters to himself, staring at his hands, not knowing where his powers went. His shoulders sag in disappointment. He failed to show his awesome skills to her.

_What happened?_

* * *

**Here you go, the next chapter is here. I am really sorry for not updating it soon. I had pretty busy time at work trying to tie things up before my vacation started. Now I am resting in Finland. You should try it. It is very pretty in here.**

**Please let me know how you liked the chapter and leave a review! **

_(Word count 3375... a long way to go to the 25000)_


	3. Chapter 3 - Success

**Chapter 3 **

_**Success**_

* * *

"Beckett! Wait!"

Castle wakes from his frozen state and takes off towards the door. It can't be. His powers are not working anymore. What the hell happened to him? He doesn't waste a second and dashes out of the interview room to catch Beckett. Luckily she hasn't gotten far away, only a few steps out of the room towards her desk.

She turns around and Castle can see the annoyance in her eyes. "What?"

"Come back here, please?" He is standing in the doorway, pleading her to listen to him.

"Why?"

"Just... give me another chance to prove that I really do have a superpower," he looks straight to her eyes, trying to convince her to believe in the impossible.

"Castle," she sighs, looking up to his eyes. She seems worried now, concerned. "Are you sure you are okay? Are you having hallucinations again?"

He shakes his head and reaches out to take her hand into his palm, cradling her small fingers with larger ones. "No, seriously, Beckett, you have to believe me."

"Castle," she huffs out a breath, not wanting to yield to him. "Why it is so important that I believe your crazy story?"

Castle hangs his head, looking at their joined hands. Then he shrugs.

"It's just, you are the one who I really need to believe me. The one I need to believe in me," he mumbles, shifting on the spot uncomfortably. "I .. just... let me try again."

"Okay," she finally says after a pause and squeezes his fingers gently. She can't say no after hearing the softness of his voice, and she can feel the love and forgiveness he is asking. She sighs. Scrunching her nose, she continues, "Show me what you got."

"Thank you," he whispers and he turns around and pulls her into the interview room again, eager to give it another shot.

"Sit," he orders her and directs her to sit down on the comfortable chair beside the couch. "Just promise you won't laugh, okay?" he pleads sheepishly.

She smirks, biting her bottom lip slightly. "I'll try not to."

He takes in a deep breath.

Here it is, this is his chance to prove it to her. He needs to focus and show her what he is really capable of. She will be proud of him. He can do it, he can.

The mantra goes on and on in his head when he takes his position - extending his arm out towards the table. He is trying to summon the coffee cup again. It worked at home, why should it be different in here.

Closing his eyes, he concentrates all of his energy on one thought - just moving the cup a little. Just a bit. _'Oh pleasegodmakeitwork.'_

He opens his eyes just in time to see the blue cup landing in his open palm. However, in this excitement, he didn't see that the cup wasn't completely empty Half a cup of cold coffee flies out of the mug, splashing all over his shoes and pants.

She lets loose a gasp initially, that turns quickliy into a fit of giggles as soon as she sees coffee soaked author..

"What?" she says after she finds her breath again. Her jaw slack and eyes big, she walks to Castle, taking the cup from his hand. She flips it over and searches for any evidence of the cup being moved by wire. But she doesn't find anything. She is confused.

"How does it work? Wire? Magnets?" She bores her eyes into him, demanding answers.

Castle grins at her teasingly, busy trying to find a kleenex for his pants. He needs a thorough clean up now, since the stain looks like he just peed in his pants. But he doesn't care. He is so happy. He was able to show her that he could do it.

He did it, he can move things with his mind! He has a super power and he's damn proud of it. And finally Beckett saw it!

"I told you I have super powers," he teases, finding the kleenex in his pocket and trying to frantically brush the coffee stains from his tailored pants.

"How is that possible, Castle?" she asks disbelievingly, shaking a cup in her hand, stepping towards him. "How can you have super powers?"

He shakes his head, "I have really no idea... it .. just happened this morning. I just discovered it. I haven't really had time to think about it..." he scratches his head, smiling apologetically.

"Do you think it has something to do with the laser blaster you fired?" She grabs a hold of his right hand and turns it over in her palm, trying to see if the weapon had left any visible marks.

"The Phaser! How did I not think of that?" Castle exhales with glee. "That would totally explain it, Beckett!"

"Seriously, Castle. I was kidding." she answers drily, trying to remain serious, but the mix of excitement on his face and his dirty looking clothes and rumpled hair, makes him look adorably sexy and she can't help but smile.

"Okay... for argument's sake, let's just say that somehow," she purses her lips and clears her throat slightly, "the high intensity laser weapon has caused this...ability... somehow. How?"

He shakes his head. "I have no idea. I don't even know why. But isn't it _awesome_? And I have super hearing too!"

"Super-_what-now_?" Beckett's forehead is suddenly covered with wrinkles as she is processing the information.

"Super. Hearing." he offers. "I can hear everything! I mean I can hear Esposito and Ryan stepping into the elevator right now - they will be up any minute."

"I sent them to gather information about Gaser's whereabouts a while ago. They aren't suppose to be back so early," Beckett argues. "Are you just making this up as you go?"

"No, I swear. I could pick out Esposito's laugh from a mile away. Just watch. They will step out of the elevator in 3, 2...1" he points to the elevator doors as she hears a faint 'ding' and the doors slide open.

She gasps as the boys step out of the metal box. She turns around and glares at him. "How did you know?"

"Beckett, I already told you, super powers! Why won't you believe me," he points out.

"This is ridiculous!" she argues back.

"That doesn't make them less real. "...I've proved it to you twice now. What more do I have to do to convince you? Ooooh... maybe I need a costume! Blue spandex, a cape, a big red "W" on my chest?... You know, for "Writer"! It'd be -"

He catches himself as he glances at Beckett, thoroughly amused by his excitement but also a bit skeptical of the entire situation.

He steels himself, grabs her shoulders gently, and looks at her very seriously.

"Kate, please. I need you to believe me."

She eyes him warily. A part of her still doesn't want to believe what he is saying. But he showed her what he can do with his mind. And wow, he can... yielding to the strong urge to say 'no' to Castle, she finds her willpower melting under his tender gaze and she nods.

"I do."

"Thank you," he pulls her into a tight embrace. "Finally."

He doesn't let go immediately but enjoys her strong frame against his. But Kate gets restless within his grasp and clears her throat.

"Castle," she whispers, "you can let me go now."

"Oh, right," he steps back immediately, dropping his hands to his side. "Precinct. Right."

Beckett combs her hands through her hair, suddenly not knowing what to do. Esposito and Ryan are at their desks and throwing sideways glances at couple. They know what's going on between Castle and Beckett, but this doesn't stop them from mocking the pair from time to time.

"Let's go and see what they got from the interviews before they start coming up with idiotic scenarios explaining what we are doing here," she mumbles starting to exit the interview room.

He nods and follows her without saying anything. He's not really sure how to break the news to the guys. And would they even believe him? Ryan, maybe. But Espo is just as much of a skeptic as Beckett.

Before he can think any further he sees something out of the corner of his eye.

It can't be. The thick jacket she is wearing suddenly seems translucent...

'_Oh my god'_.

He can see through solid objects.

His mouth drops open when he realises what he sees.

"Detective Beckett," he lowers his voice taking on a seductive tone. "You are not wearing a bra today, are you?"

* * *

**I hope you liked the update! I am really sorry that you had to wait for so long, but I had no will do write until now. I really really do hope you still like the fiction. I promise I will finish it. I can't say how fast though. Hehehehe :) I had to update today though, since it is my bday after all :) **

**Word count 4826.**

** Lot to go :) **

**Review?**


	4. Chapter 4 - Friendly Mockery

**Chapter 4 **

_**Friendly mockery**_

"What?" Beckett gasps. "Castle, how...?" she can't finish her question because Castle is butting in again.

"…can I know that?" he finishes for her.

She nods swallowing lightly.

"Apparently I can see through things," he glees. "It's a very good view from here," he whispers in her ear as he tilts his head slightly to glimpse down at her blouse.

"Castle!" she gasps again.

"What?" he chuckles. "It's not like I haven't seen it before!"

"Castle, we are at work!" she hisses, her eyes big, trying to bring down the volume of their conversation.

"Yes, we are," he agrees, nodding. "But that doesn't mean that I can't admire your... assets. And right now..." he cocks his head to the side, "... I have the best view."

Beckett groans and grabs him by the ear.

Castle lets loose a shriek that can only described as… girly.

"Apples, apples, apples," he begs, trying to get away from the iron grip of Beckett's hand. She doesn't let go, just squeezes the poor earlobe tighter and glares at him while he moans in pain.

"Beckett," he pleads. "That hurts, please let go? I'll be good."

"No more of this in precinct?" she requests, eyeing him intently. He nods and she releases his ear.

Castle automatically reaches for his right ear with his palm and rubs it gently. "Ouch," he mumbles, pouting.

"Serves you right," she shoots back, staring at him. "X-ray vision?"

Castle lets go of his ear and nods again. Letting his eyes wander around the interview room lightly in order to not look at her and her transparent clothing.

"Apparently!"

"Are you messing with me right now again?" She narrows her eyes.

"I swear to god, no!" Castle steps closer to her, grabbing ahold of her shoulders. He needs her to believe her, not make her run away again. "Beckett, this... x-ray thing... it's a surprise for me too. I swear! I didn't have this before... but now... I can see through things..." His eyes stop at her breasts again and he loses track of his thoughts.

"Castle?" she prompts with a smirk. "My eyes are up here."

"Yeah, yeah, right. I find this whole thing distracting right now. I can't stop staring at..." his hands gesturing in circles at chest height. "At your... um... yeah. Why don't you have a bra on for crying out loud?" he enquires, cocking his head to the right.

He glances up to meet her eyes. She is giving him "the look". _Uh, oh... _ He straightens himself immediately. She is so going to kick his ass later.

After a moment of silence, her features soften slightly. "You really need to stop. Now."

But he can't help himself, straining her nerves to the fullest. "I can't. Your boobs are enchanting..."

He ducks an on-coming smack to the head.

"Seriously, Castle?"

"I'll stop," he laughs, calming her down. "I'll stop. But remember, this will continue this in the evening..." he stresses his words by sliding his hands down her arms.

She only shakes head and rolls her eyes.

"Let's go now, I really need to talk with the guys," she turns herself away to step away from the room but suddenly stops, making him crash into her.

"Ooompf," he responds after the collision, quickly taking a step back when she is giving him 'the evil eye' again.

She sticks a finger against his chest, making him step back another step.

"No teasing. Or you'll regret it."

Castle gulps and nods soundlessly. With that, Beckett turns herself away and waltzes out of the room, leaving him breathless. She upped the game of tease again.

When he finally arrives at Beckett's desk, she is already sitting down, deep in conversation with Ryan and Esposito.

"So, you basically couldn't find out anything?" She seems to be disappointed.

"Well," Ryan objects, "we did find out where Anya lived few weeks ago. We can go and check that place out later. It _is something_, at least."

"I really hoped that you would get something out of the guy. What did he say about the necklace?" Beckett enquires.

Esposito straightens his back. "He believes that it's a gift from her ex-boyfriend. Seems that Anya never shared the story of the necklace with him. He claims that she had that necklace before they ever got together."

"Gaser is denying everything?" she wrinkles her eyebrows. She doesn't want to believe that the guy is innocent.

"Pretty much," Esposito nods, shuffling with the case file. "I hate to say it, but he might be clean."

"Damn," Beckett mutters, averting her eyes to the murder board to see Gaser's picture hanging there.

She opens her mouth to say something when Esposito interrupts her with a soft tap on her shoulder. She turns her eyes to the Latino cop in confusion.

"What's with him?" he asks, pointing to Castle. Kate follows the direction of his finger and sees Castle sitting in his chair, red faced and smirking. He has been unusually quiet during the exchange. The guys know that something is off, but it seems that they can't quite figure out what yet.

"With Castle?" she asks, furrowing her eyebrows.

Castle, upon hearing his name, raises his head to look at her, but drops his gaze to her chest area again, making his cheeks redden even more.

"Yeah," Espo confirms, glancing at castle with questioning look.

"It appears that he has developed superpowers..." she teases, staring at Castle and trying to wordlessly trying to explain to him that he should stop staring at her breasts.

"What?" Ryan gasps. "Super powers? Seriously?"

Castle finds his voice while still ogling her like he is hungry for something, and nods.

"Seriously."

"Really?"

"Really!"

Confusion and admiration cross Ryan's face simultaneously. "Like, super super-powers?"

"Super powers as in awesome powers!"

Beckett rolls her eyes as Esposito shakes his head at his partner. With one eyebrow raised, he addresses the writer. "Like, super speed? Super strength?"

Castle's face drops for a second, "Well... nooo... I don't have super speed yet... nor super strength... Yet... But I do have telekinesis. And super hearing."

Espo shakes his head and smiles, "You call those super powers?"

"Hey, at least it's something!" Castle defends, shifting slightly in his chair.

"How did you get those?" Ryan asks eyeing him with a look that is between suspicious and excited. The boys are not buying it, not yet.

"Um… I haven't figured that one out yet, but I have some ideas..." Castle tries to explain. But Esposito just glares at Beckett disbelievingly.

"Is he serious? Do you believe this stuff he's saying?" he asks.

Beckett doesn't say anything, only arches her eyebrow and smiles secretively.

"I can't believe this!" Esposito exclaims, confused. "You actually believe his crazy stories?"

"Well," she leans back in her chair a bit. "He had really good evidence. I had no choice."

"Hey," Castle tries to get their attention back again. "I'm here too, you know."

Esposito turns his head slowly. His stare is intimidating, making Castle back down in his chair a little bit.

"Do you have proof?" Espo asks slowly, making Ryan chuckle at his side.

"I-I-I do," he stutters. He shuffles in his chair. He makes himself comfortable while trying to figure out what he can do to make the boys believe him that he can do what he says he can. He can't prove his super hearing now, since there aren't any obvious targets around. He is _not_ going to rat out Beckett's choice of attire (or lack thereof) to them. That knowledge will _only_ stay with _him_. Glancing around the tables, he spots a half-eaten donut in front of Esposito.

_A ha! _He has a target.

He points at the donut and looks at Esposito. "Are you going to, _uh_, finish that?"

Before the Latino can answer, the donut takes flight from its spot and levitates towards Castle's open palm.

"Dude!" Esposito breathes out when it lands safely.

"Thank you," Castle glees and digs his teeth into the donut.

"That was mine!" the detective protests.

Castle only laughs with his mouth full and mumbles, "Now it is mine. I love sprinkles!"

"How did you do that?" Ryan asks in glee. The man has been thoroughly impressed.

"I told you, super powers," Castle smiles and wiggles his fingers.

Ryan and Esposito both look at Beckett to seek out the confirmation. Beckett only arches her eyebrows, shrugs slightly and shares a knowing smirk.

"Dude, that is so cool!" the Latino detective is the first one approve.

"Woah," Ryan laughs. "Are you sure it's safe?"

Castle opens his mouth to come back with witty and punny remark. But suddenly Beckett's desk phone rings, interrupting the conversation between the cops and the writer.

Kate grabs the phone and barks, "Beckett!"

The boys and Castle can hear the muffled sounds from the other end while Beckett answers some questions with short words. Finally she puts the phone down and looks up at the waiting eyes.

"Looks like we have a lead."

* * *

_**A/N: And yet again, I am so so late with my updating of the chapter. Can you forgive me? I am certain now, that there is no way I am going to finish this fic fully before September. But I will finish this. I promise. This is an awesome story that needs to be told. **_

_**So, sorry for being late. **_

_**But here it is! I hope you all like it. You can always poke me if you want me to write faster. I have noticed it works on me. He he he.**_

_**Thank you Sheyna and my golden pen. **_

_**Please leave a review. It will make me very happy.**_

_**P.S. Who gets the Stargate Atlantis reference gets 5 golden cherries (imaginary) from me ;)**_


	5. Chapter 5 - Save me

**Chapter 5**

**Save me**

_Somebody save me,_

_Let your warm hands break right through it._

_Somebody save me,_

_I don't care how you do it, just stay, stay!_

_C'mon, I've been waiting for you..._

_(Remy Zero - Save me)_

* * *

"Castle, leave the radio alone!" Beckett growls at her partner. For the whole duration of the ride, he has been fiddling with the radio button, searching for new music more to his taste.

"But I didn't like this song!" he objects, subtly changing the channel again.

"Castle," she hisses, "I'm gonna stop the car and make you walk there alone."

The writer retracts his hand hastily, leaving the radio station on a pop-rock version of a country song that neither of them know.

"Sorry," he mumbles. Beckett sighs. But Castle can't sit still and he starts shifting in his seat, getting on Beckett's nerves.

"What?" she snaps.

"Nothing, nothing," he hums out, smiling. He is antsy. He wants to get out of the car already and do some stuff. The car being too loud, the lack of her underwear, the knowing he can do whatever he wants with his new powers is making him all kinds of crazy. He just wants to try everything out. But he is stuck in the car, confined, with limited ability to move around. So he starts to levitate the pen that was sitting on the dashboard.

They stop at a red light and Castle lets down the pen and starts to look around. His gaze wanders around over to the people walking on the sidewalks, hurrying to work or home like every day, in the crazy beat of New York.

He gasps.

"Oh my god!"

Beckett turns her face to Castle to stare at him. She doesn't say anything but the direct and furious stare tells Castle that she is either asking him to shut up or him to tell what is wrong with him.

So, obviously, he decides that it's the latter.

"That woman is a man!" he points a finger at the fine looking young woman who is just passing by their car.

"Castle, would you be quiet please! She can hear us!" Beckett growls, yanking him back to his seat and disrupting his ogling of the poor woman. "And it was a woman!"

The writer turns his attention back to Beckett and smiles widely. "No, I'm telling you, it was a man!"

"How do you know?"

"Same way I know that you didn't wear a bra today, Beckett."

For a moment, redness flashes through her features. Truly, she didn't plan to raise so much attention with her choice of attire. But, then again, she didn't foresee that Castle would have a freakish ability of seeing through solid objects.

"You mean... that..? Ohh..." she mumbles, turning herself around to look at the woman. Ahem... uh... man... walking down the sidewalk. "No way, Castle. She looks like a woman..."

"Nuh-uh," Castle laughs. "He has quite impressive equipment, I have to say."

Beckett does a double-take and stares at the woman... uh... a man.

The light from the traffic light switches from red to green. Beckett doesn't seem to notice, seemingly lost in her own thoughts, so he calls out, "Beckett, Green!"

"Uh, sorry." She switches the car into a gear and they move along the road.

* * *

Beckett's new police-issued blue cruiser pulls in front of the victim's apartment, parking next to the boys' red Dodge. Before Castle can react, she is already out of the car, heading towards the door where Esposito is standing, waiting for them.

"Finally," the Espo huffs out. "I thought you got lost."

"The traffic was crazy in midtown," she explains while Castle finally appears at her side. Espo leads the way as they head into the building.

"They found the apartment untouched," Esposito gives Beckett the details. "As far as we have seen, nothing has been taken, everything seems to be intact. But, there is one thing that doesn't make sense. You have to see this."

Beckett only nods and continues to walk behind Esposito, Castle on her tail. They make it inside the tiny apartment and head straight to the blood stained bedroom floor.

She squats down beside the blood stains, looking closely at the evidence at hand. Then she looks up to find Ryan's gaze. He opens his mouth, "The blood samples are already in the lab, we should have the details soon."

Beckett stands up. "Thank you, Ryan. Anything else I should know about?"

"Yes." Ryan nods, extending his arm with a picture in his hands. Beckett takes it from him and sees their victim with a bulky big guy.

"This is a recent picture. I asked around. Neighbours have seen him in her apartment several times over the last month. This should be the new boyfriend Gaser was talking about," Ryan debriefs Beckett.

Beckett nods and gives the picture back to Ryan. "Run it through the system, maybe we'll get lucky. Anything else?"

"Not that I know of."

Beckett nods again, going straight towards Anya's bookcase in the far end of the room to search through her personal belongings with the hope that something might catch her attention. Castle doesn't join her but walks in the opposite direction. There is an interesting statue just next to the front door he can't stay away from.

The statue looks like it is African in origin and depicts a woman sitting down, and her haircut looks like a hammer on top of her head.

"It looks Native-African, doesn't it?" he asks aloud, rousing the attention of both of the male detectives, while Beckett doesn't even bat an eyelash.

Ryan, from the other end of the room nods and replies, "Kinda, yes. Why?"

But Castle is unable to finish his sentence because the front door charges open and the same bulky man from the picture stands in the doorway, his weapon cocked and ready, aiming at Beckett.

Hastily, she turns around, pulling out her gun as well.

The time slows down for Castle. He sees the gun of the attacker and he is already on the move, running the short distance towards the shooter, kicking the gun out of his hands and knocking him down. But it's too late already. The bullet is in the air, flying towards Beckett at a very, very slow speed.

_Slow speed? _

He has no time to ponder, he has to reach Beckett before the bullet hits her. He's not gonna lose her again. Not again.

Everybody else seems to be frozen on the spot as he sprints towards the love of his life. For some weird reason, the bullet is still in the air when he pushes her out of the path of death, landing on top of her with a grunt.

As suddenly as the commotion happened, it's over. Esposito and Ryan awake from their frozen state and run towards the attacker, while Beckett, her gun still in her hand, tries to figure out what just happened.

"Castle!" she gasps as she realizes that he is lying on top of her. "What just happened?"

He gets off of her in a hurry, trying to help her up.

"I-I don't know," he stutters. "I saw him coming in … and then he shot at you. And I had to save you. I just had to. I can't go this through again. Are you alright? Did the bullet hit you? Are you bleeding?"

"Castle... Breathe." She tells him, trying to do the same. "It didn't hit me. I am alright. Just breathe."

He wheezes deep breaths in and out.

"How did you get from there to here?" she is confused now, her brain not computing the long distance between where he had been standing and where she was. How did he beat the bullet in time to save her from certain death?

He doesn't respond, clearly pondering the same question.

"Super speed," they gasp in unison.

"I have super speed," he breathes out, his eyes big, mouth ajar in awe. After a beat of silence. "I am Superman?"

"You … have... how?" she is confused again, trying to wrap her head around the new information.

"I told you I had super powers before, didn't I?" He is smiling widely, proud of himself.

"But... but... I didn't really..." she starts.

"You didn't believe me, before?" His smile fades away, stepping closer to her.

"Well," she draws the words out. "I had my doubts."

"You believe me now?" he looks at her, seriousness in his features.

"I do, Castle. I do," she nods, bringing her hand to his cheek, caressing the rough stubbled surface lightly.

Esposito barges into the apartment again from the hall, disrupting their moment of clarity. Beckett retreats her hand, letting it drop to her side and taking a step back from him.

"We got him. Cuffed and all," the detective informs them. "But somebody broke his nose."

Castle looks guiltily over to Espo, raising his hands. "Oops."

"How the hell did you do that? You were just at the other end of the room!"

"Super speed," is the only bit of information Castle offers.

"What?" Esposito barks out. "That too? What are you? A man of steel?"

"It seems so. I am. A Man of Steel! Faster than a speeding bullet!" He smiles and buffs his chest and placing his hands on his hips in the manner of Clark Kent on the Superman posters. Then, Castle yanks up his right hand he injured knocking down the man, grabbing it with his left one. "Or.. not.. ow ow ow... That hurts."

Esposito barks out laughter. "'Man of Whine' would be more like it."

* * *

_**A/N: I am sorry to update so late, but lately I felt like I needed a time off from everything. Not only from writing. I have been resting in my country home and enjoying the nature so far. When you, my dear readers, started sending me messages, wanting me to update this fic – so I did. Thank you for voicing your thoughts and making me to write! Thank you!**_

_**Also, each and every one of you who reviewed my fic – I THANK you. Seriously, big, big thanks. Reviews are one thing that keeps me going. And you have been so gracious with your words. Love you!**_

_**My german crazy, you are my rock! And Sheyna too! Hopefully I will update more... Sooner...**_


	6. Chapter 6 - Discoveries

**Chapter 6 **

_**Discoveries**_

"Castle," she hisses quietly, only him hearing her in the darkened section of the apartment.

They are still in the victim's apartment, continuing their interrupted search. With the shooter arrested and on his way to the precinct with Esposito and Ryan, Castle and Beckett (together with some uniforms) were left to conduct the search of the apartment.

She was hesitant to stay there. He could tell. However, she had been the one who insisted that the boys should be the ones who would interview the victim's ex-boyfriend.

Something was off with her. He could sense it. The way she moved, quietly, chin up high. The way she swallowed and shifted on the spot whenever she stopped, rubbing her hands together nervously. Something was bothering her.

She had walked to the back end of one secluded room.

He followed her, hoping that she wouldn't notice. But when she turned around, she spotted him right away. Damn.

"Castle," she hisses again, "come here."

Ah. She _wanted_ to be followed. He gets it now. Taking a few quick steps, he is at her side.

"Super-powers?" she asks, eyeing him quizzically. He chuckles. Seems like the _"not-so-old-news-anymore" _hasn't quite sunk in for her yet.

He smiles. Nods.

"H- how?" she looks up at his eyes, brows furrowed, trying to understand the whole concept of her man being a super-freak.

"Honestly? I don't know exactly. As I said before, I woke up and I could… do all these things. I am still figuring it out. Hey, do you think I can fly too?"

Beckett shakes her head in annoyance. "Castle, could you be serious for a moment? Don't you think these abilities are kind of weird?"

"Weird? No way, Beckett! They are so cool!" he exclaims and for reasons of showing off, he summons few cookies from the plate nearby to fly to his hand. "Cookie?"

Beckett purposefully ignores Castle's antics while racking her head over the facts she has.

Castle woke up, having these weird powers. He could lift things with his thoughts, he had super hearing, x-ray vision (not cool) and now super-speed as well. How could this be happening to him? Then she remembers their conversation back at the precinct (_when she was still under the impression it was all a great joke_) when they discussed the same topic.

"The phaser!" she suddenly breaks from her thoughts, subsequently startling Castle so that he drops the cookie he was eating.

"What?" he asks, mouth still full of the remains of the chocolate chip cookie.

"The Thorian Blaster, remember, we talked about it at the precinct? This makes most sense. That's where you got the powers!"

"Yeah," he swallows the last of the cookie before he can talk again. Then suddenly, he furrows his brows and narrows his eyes.

"Wait, but why didn't I feel anything yesterday when I fired the laser blaster? I should have had powers then!"

"Maybe it needs time to settle before the powers can work?"

"What needs to settle?" Castle asks, pointedly looking at her.

"I don't know, I don't know," Beckett whispers. He can hear the slight desperation in her voice already.

"Are you thinking that the phaser gun could have dangerous side effects?" Castle asks, slightly raising his voice.

She only nods, looking down.

Something catches her eye and she gasps. She reaches for Castle's right hand, the very same hand that he used to fire that laser gun.

"Castle, what is this?"

"What?"

He doesn't understand at first and looks at her quizzically. But when Beckett turns her hand around to expose the insides of his palm, he can see it too.

His hand is green.

Not like paint-green, but an eerie-sick like green that stays under his skin. His whole palm is covered with the new colour and it is starting to crawl up to his wrist.

He gasps in horror and quickly pulls his hand away from her and yelps. "My hand is green! Aah. What is this?"

"This is _not_ normal," Kate states in discomfort, looking at Castle freaking out in front of her. He tries to wipe the greenness off from his hand, but nothing seemed to help.

"Ya think?" he snaps at her, rubbing his hand against his pants.

"Castle, why is your hand green?"

"I don't know!" He yells at her, panic lacing his voice.

He is obsessively trying to get rid of the colour on his hand now.

He turns around and grabs disinfectant from one of the shelves and pours it over his hand. But it has no effect. Nothing helps.

"Castle, you need to calm down…" Beckett starts, but Castle interrupts her.

"_Calm down_? CALM DOWN? How am I supposed to calm down when my skin is turning green? What is happening to me? Kate. Am I going bald? Do I have scales on my face? Please tell me I don't have scales on my face!"

She realizes that Castle might go into full-blown panic mode soon if she doesn't do something.

Beckett grabs one of his arms in order to stop him gesticulating wildly with it. When he turns to her to look into her eyes, she raises her other hand to caress his cheek. "Castle, breathe."

"I _do_ have scales on my face, don't I...?" Castle states, his voice shaking gently.

Beckett only chuckles and places a finger on his lips. "Shut up, Castle. You are alright. You don't have scales on your face. And you still have all of your hair. You are alright."

"How am I alright when my hand is green?"

"Maybe it's a temporary effect due to using the phaser? Maybe it will go away. Castle, you have to calm down and breathe... before you break that vase behind you."

She is brings both of her palms to caress his face. "Castle, look at me," she begs. "Look at me. You are alright. We're okay. We're Ok."

He nods. He closes his eyes and draws in a deep breath to calm his snappy nerves. When he opens them again, Kate is looking back at him, worry-eyed and concerned.

"Better?" she asks.

"A little," he answers honestly. Even though he calmed down a bit, it doesn't mean he isn't still worried about himself. Something _HAS_ to be wrong. For crying out loud, his hand is _green_.

Beckett senses his mind reeling and steps closer to him. She entwines her hands behind his neck and hugs him tightly. Castle buries his nose into her hair and embraces her back, holding her tightly against his body.

"Thanks," he whispers softly into her neck.

When they finally pull back from the hug, she smiles up at him and takes a hold of his left hand - the one that isn't soiled with the eerie green colour. She squeezes it gently and then lets him go.

"We need to finish searching the apartment," she explains. He nods. Yes. They were working here. Of course. Before he can turn himself away, she touches his arm again.

"After that, we are gonna find out what happened to you, I promise."

"Okay," he says softly.

* * *

It took them another hour to finish their sweep of Anya's apartment. They found only one more suspicious picture and fingerprints on one recent letter. Beckett bagged them both as evidence before they headed downstairs to the car.

They didn't talk much. His mind was still reeling about the discovery of the changes of his body, and she was busy wrapping up the case with newly found evidence and new information Esposito and Ryan had gathered from the shooter.

Like Beckett had theorized before - the man was Anya's former boyfriend, Boris. Anya had dumped him a week ago and Boris couldn't get over the fact that he had been dumped. So, for a whole week he had stalked Anya and thus discovered that she was talking a lot with Gaser.

Boris, the former Soviet love hammer that he was, couldn't swallow his pride and had confronted Anya in the alley. When Anya told him off, he got angry and crushed her skull against the wall. Realizing what he had done, he tried to escape from NYC. But he wasn't very bright. Upon remembering that he left several of his belongings and some pictures in Anya's apartment, he had come back - only to discover police in there. He freaked and decided to kill everybody in the apartment to get away.

"Oh man," Castle whines out loud when Beckett tells him what Esposito learned from the interrogation. "And we missed the confession?"

Beckett smirks at his beaten state. "Don't worry, Castle. He will be in the lockup till tomorrow. You can visit him if you want to."

Castle snorts and shakes his head. "No, thank you. I think I have had enough of him for today. But … Soviet Love hammer? What the hell is that?"

"Um... I… I don't know. Esposito... didn't explain," she answers, furrowing her eyebrows, narrowing her eyes and tilting her head to the side.

They fall into a silence once again until Castle notices that they are not heading to the precinct like they were supposed to.

"Uh, Beckett?" he asks, voice slightly higher than usual.

"What, Castle?"

"We are not going to the precinct?"

"Nope," she shakes her head. "We need to talk to Benjamin Donnely."

"The guy who sells sci-fi weapons?"

"That's the one," Beckett nods. Castle furrows his brows for a second, then understanding what she is meaning by this.

"Oooh, you think he might know why my hand is turning green?"

"Uh-huh," Beckett nods. "We need to ask him how he made those Thorian Blasters and what is happening to you. He must know _something_ about what is going on."

She stops at one of the crossroads and eyes the neighbourhood. Confused a bit, the car stays on the spot a bit longer than needed.

"I think it was to the left," Castle decides to assist her.

Beckett turns her head to the said direction and nods. "Thanks."

The car rolls in front of Donnely's garage door and the pair steps out.

"Let's get this over with," Castle sighs and bends down to help Beckett open the door. When they finally manage to lift the garage door they just stare blankly then turn to stare at each other, shocked. They are both left speechless.

The room is empty. There is nothing there. Nada.

* * *

**A/N: Thank you everybody. The reviews have been so awesome I can't put my feelings really into the words. Seriously – for you having time to sit down and write something to me. I appreciate it so much. And to know that you like the fic and you want more. It's just... so cool. And makes my heart beat faster. Thank you so much. I hope that you keep doing what you doing and keeping my fic afloat.**

**Also, I am sorry about ... the pause again. As Castle once said... "You can't rush genius..." **

**Well. Ahem. **

**Sheyna and German-we-wont-speak-about – thank you for proofing. Yer awesome. **

**Review? Pwlease?**

**P.S. Can you see now why I have this kind of artwork done for the fic? He he he. **


	7. Chapter 7 - Curiosity

**Chapter 7**

_**Curiosity**_

* * *

"What the hell...?" Beckett is the first one to voice her thoughts.

"It's empty!" Castle squeaks, stating the obvious. "Whaat...?"

They stare at the empty room, Beckett slack jawed while Castle raises his hands to his mouth.

"He was right here!" Castle exhales through his fingers, starting to sound a little bit panicky. "Where is he, Beckett?"

"I don't know," she answers, looking at the same place where Donnelly's fake Machbarien Star Destroyer was located just two days ago. The place is wiped clean, there aren't even scratch marks on the floor or anything that would indicate recent usage of the room. Kate takes a step closer to the middle of the room and crouches down to touch the floor gently with her right hand.

"It feels like this garage has been empty for a long time, did we break into the wrong warehouse?"

Castle looks at the door, then up at the ceiling. "No, I think it's the same. I mean, look at the ceiling." Waves towards the tiled arches. "It_ has_ to be the same..."

He falls silent as he notices something. There are tiny holes in the ceiling. Small ones, but visible to the eye.

"Hey, look, holes in the ceiling!" He points upwards, looking at Beckett. She turns her gaze up as well and notices the same thing.

"He was here," she breathes out, feeling a bit lighter "That's where the laser pointers were located."

They weren't wrong about the location, they just didn't find what they were looking for. Castle slumps his shoulders and lets out a long sigh. Donnelly is really not here. How are they supposed to get answers now? He was the only one who could possibly know what is happening to him. But now that Donnelly's gone… where he is going to find the answers he needs?

"Castle, don't worry," she tries to sound cheerful after seeing him so deflated by Donnelly's absence. "We'll figure something out. I promise."

Smiling weakly, he nods. Yes. They _will _figure something out. They always do. There has to be something. At least.

Beckett looks around the big, echoey room. It seems a lot bigger now when there is no equipment there. She takes a step towards the darkened end of the warehouse to see if there is anything there that could give them a clue as to where Donnelly might have gone. But nothing catches her eye.

Castle is on the move as well, eyes bright, searching for clues. He is going towards the alcove on his right, where Donnelly's workbench was once located, having realized the same thing that Beckett had.

After a long moment of silence, Castle suddenly asks, "What if I lose my hair?"

Beckett turns around, eyes squinting and one eyebrow raised high. "Huh?"

"I mean, I am turning green. Who knows what kind of a monster I will be. But I wouldn't want to lose my hair!"

Beckett stares at him for few seconds and then a snort of laughter erupts from her. "Castle, what's with you and your hair?"

"Me and my hair?" he asks, his voice squeaky.

"Yeah, you seem to have an obsession with it," Beckett smirks, her eyes roaming over the empty room.

"I don't have an obsession!" he protests loudly, his voice carrying around the room and a tiny piece of wall covering drops to the ground, startling both of them.

Apparently, Castle has a hard time controlling his telekinetic powers under duress. Much like his mouth.

She smirks a bit as she shakes her head. Not only can he not control his powers, but he's in denial about his hair.

Beckett throws him a glance, trying to figure out if he is just messing with her. When Castle looks back at her with a look of surprise and confusion written all over his face, she realizes that he really believes what he says.

Suppressing a giggle, she steps closer and asks. "Seriously?"

"What?" Castle arches up his brows, stressing his bewilderment.

"You never stop talking about your hair!" Beckett teases. "You did it at the precinct and then I had to listen a long rant about it back at the loft. And now? Seriously? I appreciate your hair, it's so soft and silky, but…" she trails off from what she wanted to say, as she notices how Castle's initial astonishment has turned into a cocky grin.

It's her turn to be confused. "What?"

"You like my hair?"

Beckett rolls her eyes so greatly, for a moment he's afraid she'll strain her facial muscles. "_That_'s your take-away, Castle?!" she asks disbelievingly.

"Well, isn't it the most important part?" he winks at her, making her to let out a long sigh. He lets out a chuckle. She is so adorable when she is frustrated.

Beckett ignores his attempt to derail her and presses forward. "But haven't you got some kind of freakish bond with your hair, like a true New York Dame...?"

Unfortunately for her, he doesn't really listen what she is saying anymore because he just spotted something at the other, darker end of the room. His eyes fixated on it, he starts moving towards it, interrupting her. "Do you see that?"

"Castle? Are you trying to change the subject? Oh no, no, that's not gonna work," she smirks. But Castle doesn't turn to face her as he continued to stare at the back end of the garage.

"Shhh... Do you see that?" he points at a piece of paper on the ground. Beckett, who finally turned herself in the direction where he was pointing, sees the same thing.

"Ohh…"

"Let's see what it is," he smiles at her and straightens his arm towards it. The paper flies into his hand. He opens it and reads, brows furrowed.

Beckett takes few strides to stand beside him and cranes her head to see the scribbles on the paper. Written on the pale yellow post-it note are the words:

'_Donnelly! Be careful, they are coming!'_

Castle turns the paper over to look at the scribbled numbers '_61/2 SSSR'._

"What do you think it means?" Castle looks at her while shifting the paper closer to her. Beckett takes the tiny note from his hands and turns it to every direction.

"It's probably some kind of a code," Beckett offers, shrugging.

Castle's eyes widen and just as he begins to open his mouth, she quickly covers it with her hand.

"Castle, if you even think of mentioning the 'DaVinci Code' right now, I'm leaving."

"Secret cipher of the Illuminati?"

She opens her mouth to stop his crazy array of thoughts, but the shrill of her phone interrupts her thoughts. With one swift move she takes it out of her coat pocket, clicks _'answer'_ and raises it to her ear.

"Hey Lanie," she greets her friend with a smile on her face.

Castle pouts, but listens in what Beckett is saying. It's interesting that Lanie is calling her now, since they just closed a case and nobody has called in another murder, yet.

"Oh... okay. We'll be right there," she answers and clicks off. She turns her gaze to Castle who is watching her with narrowed eyes.

"Uh, Lanie wants to talk with me," she explains apologetically. "We need to go to the morgue before we head to the precinct. Is that okay with you?"

"Yeah, yeah," Castle nods. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"Okay, then. I think we are done here, let's get going." She gives the piece of paper back to Castle before she turns to walk out of the empty warehouse. "But don't worry. We will figure this thing out."

* * *

"Hey," Beckett greets her girlfriend as soon as she and Castle enter the morgue.

"Heey! It's about time you showed up. I was beginning to think you wouldn't come," the M.E. answers with a big grin.

"Sorry, it took a little bit of time. We weren't at the precinct," Beckett explains apologetically.

Castle smiles and nods, carefully watching the interaction between two friends. He knows a little bit of what Kate told him after the 3XK case - hat Lanie, together with Esposito and Ryan, know about their relationship. But knowing doesn't stop her from teasing them, sometimes mercilessly.

Lanie raises eyebrows. "Oh really? Where were you then? Making pancakes again?"

Kate lets out a frustrated sigh and tries shrug off her friend's not-so-subtle enquire "It doesn't matter Lanie, what do you want?"

"Ah... so, no small talk? Just jumping right into things?" Lanie teases, pulling out an envelope underneath a pile of paper. "Girlfriend, you need to take lessons in_ communicating with friends_. Sometimes I wanna talk, too, you know."

Beckett steels her features, says nothing, and just waits. Lanie reads her loud and clear

"But I am betting this is not the time..."

Kate doesn't let herself get bothered by the gentle teasing from Lanie. Castle chuckles lightly and steps closer to Beckett in order to understand better what the two women were talking about.

Lanie shakes her head with a sweet smile on her face. "Seriously, Kate, sometimes you need to loosen up a bit. It's all work with you. But yeah, I didn't ask you come here for girl-talk this time. Here," she gives Beckett the envelope. "I need you to take this to Javi."

Kate doesn't want to take it at first and stares quizzically at her friend.

"Why won't you give it to him yourself?"

"A body just dropped and the detectives on the case are very persistent. They want me to get some information on the body _today_. Thus, I can't meet Javier as I was planning to do. I am really counting on you Kate. Please?" she begs.

Beckett finally nods and takes the envelope.

Castle perks up next to Beckett. "What's in there? Are you sending your boy some money?" he attempts to crack a joke. But instead of a smile, he receives a stern glare from Lanie.

"It's none of your business, Castle. And you'd better not peek in there!" she warns.

"Damn," he mutters. "I was hoping."

Beckett smirks, trying to ignore him, but failing. She loves the glee written all over his face when he's happy. Silently, she thanks the universe for small miracles. He has clearly forgotten about his current state of distress and is actually acting normal at the moment. Well. Somewhat normal.

"So, what's with the body? Jimenez has a case, you say?"

Lanie nods.

"They found the body in front of some shoe store on 2nd Avenue. Frank said that the pedestrians who noticed the body thought the man was sleeping. But he was dead by the time they decided to call 9-1-1. When uniforms found him, they thought that he had committed suicide because there were no marks on his body to suggest otherwise."

"Why is he here then, if they thought it was suicide?" Castle asks, clearly sucked into the story.

"Good question," Lanie raises his index finger. "I asked the same from Frank. But apparently the body is covered with some kind of chemical I need to identify first. Hopefully it will lead to the cause of death."

Beckett squints her eyes at Lanie. "Chemical substance covering the body?"

"Look at it yourself," the M.E. laughs. She is slowly sucking them both in. Those two. Always suckers for a good murder. She raises the sheet that is covering the dead body and both Beckett and Castle gasp in unison.

"What?" Lanie doesn't understand the utter surprise of the partners.

Castle squeaks. "Beckett? Is that….?"

"Yeah," Beckett sighs out in frustration. The body in the morgue is one Benjamin Donnelly.

Suddenly Castle grasps his right hand, the same one that is slowly turning green. He grimaces in pain. "Ow, ow, ow. Beckett. It hurts."

He automatically steps back from the body. Trying to ease the pain in his limbs. But this is too much.

Beckett stares at her partner, who is squirming in pain. "What the hell is going on?"

* * *

_**A/N: Seriously, thank you each and every one of you who have taken some time and read the story, reviewed it and stuck with it. I know I suck at updating, but you have to believe me when I say I am really trying. Real life can be a biach sometimes. But oh well, what you, poor soul, can do. **_

_**Thank you beta-Shena.**_

_**I hope you had fun time reading new chapter and I am looking forward for your responses. Feel free to rant or yell… or tell me you love me. Hehehe**_


	8. Chapter 8 - Uncover

**Chapter 8**

_**Uncover**_

Beckett watches as Castle runs out of the morgue, his face revealing the pain he is in. The worry shoots through her. She knows she will run after him. But firstly, she has to know some things before she can go. She needs answers. And Lanie may have them.

"What the hell just happened?" Lanie looks at her friend, her eyes widened in surprise and horror.

"No time to explain," Beckett mumbles and steps closer to the dead body of Benjamin Donnelly. "Where did you say his body was discovered?"

Lanie continues to stare at her friend but finally her eyes wander back to the papers on her table. Swiftly she shifts through them.

"According to Jimenez, the victim is one Benjamin Donnelly. His body was located in front of a building in 2nd Avenue."

Beckett furrows his brows, concentrating really hard on getting the facts right. "Can you give me a number of the building?"

"Yes. It says here it was 61st."

Beckett's mouth opens but nothing comes out. She stares at Lanie for few seconds, soundless and surprised.

"What?" Lanie shrugs in confusion.

"Thank you, Lanie. I gotta go now." Beckett touches Lanie's arm gently, trying to reassure her friend.

And then she is fleeing towards the door.

"Beckett!" Lanie yells after her. "What the hell is going on?"

Beckett stops for a second before she opens the door. "Lanie, I have don't time right now. Call you later." She turns and opens the door. Then stops again. "Oh, and please find out what is the chemical all over him, okay?"

Lanie can only nod before her friend is out of the room.

* * *

As soon as he is out of the morgue, Castle backs off down the hallway to escape from the searing pain in his right hand. It hurts like hell, the bones in his hand burning like fire, skin crackling under his palm. He just can't stand it anymore. He closes his eyes because of his torment. When he opens them again, he spots a drinking fountain in the hallway and he practically runs for it. He rips open the sleeve of his shirt to access more skin. He lets the cool water run over his achy arm.

While the water dissolves his pain, he starts to notice what is happening to his hand. The line of the colour change has moved upwards in his hand. He can't see it where it ends because the sleeve of his jacket is in his way. He shrugs it off with his shaky hands and rolls up the sleeve of his right hand. Then he sees it all. The colour stain that was pale green has turned into a deep lime green, black lines running over it like spiderweb. The nails of his hand have turned to blue and their tips sharpened like a cat's claws. He lets loose a sob when he sees this. He still doesn't see how far has the mutation gone. He rolls his sleeve even higher. He sighs in relief - his elbow still looks normal. At least it has stopped there.

He runs a finger over his green, crackly skin and shudders. This is not normal. What is happening to him? _Why?_

Suddenly his thoughts fly back to the man now lying in the morgue. Donnelly had asked him if he was wearing proper protection… for… stuff.

_Protection. _

The man had said he was fine. What if…

_Oh god! _

_What if?_

Castle's mind goes into full time panic mode. His shaky hand drifts downwards, to the waistband of his pants while his mind is racing at lightning speed, thinking of all possible outcomes of the situation.

He closes his eyes for a moment in prayer.

He whispers, "Oh god, please be_ normal_. Please."

With swift move, he pulls the waistband of his pants and boxers away from his stomach and peeks inside, craning his head downwards.

"_Ohgodno!" _he yelps out in horror.

* * *

**A/N: I know it's really short, but I have had … a really busy weeks. I try harder to update. I promise.**

**Thank you everybody, who have been kind enough and left reviews for me. I love when you do that. Thank you Ozonute for being my 100****th**** reviewr. Love you all!**


	9. Chapter 9 - Threads

**Chapter 9 **

_**Threads**_

Beckett closes the door behind her as she reaches the hallway. She looks around, but Castle is not there.

_Where is he? _

In a panic, she looks both ways to see where he could have gone.

"Castle?" she yells out.

"Yeah?" the muffled answer comes from the back end of the hallway. Taking few hurried steps towards the sound, she finds Castle there, slumped against the wall, his eyes closed.

"Castle?" she asks again. "What happened?"

He doesn't answer, but lets loose a long sigh instead.

Beckett notices his ripped shirt and she closes the remaining distance between them. She grabs his mutated hand and raises it to inspect it closer.

"Oh, Castle," she whispers when she sees the rough green skin of his. "It has gotten worse?"

He only nods and opens his eyes.

"It's not the only thing that has taken a turn for worse..." he mumbles.

Beckett's face falls. Thoughts start to race in her head. _Has his health gotten worse? Is he feeling sick? Is he gonna black out?_

Castle stops her train of thought by settling his left hand on top of her hand and squeezing it gently.

"Other than the pain I had, I… I don't feel bad. It's just…" he moves his green hand, "this is a bit freaky."

Beckett nods. She understands. Any normal person with a forming mutation would feel that way. Even though his powers were exciting at first, but never in his life would he have expected to turn green. Beckett shuts her eyes for a second. _Is this the downside of his powers? Will he change into something else?_

"Although, this is not the worst part," he continues. Beckett's eyes flash open.

"What do you mean?" She is confused, still holding onto his hands.

Castle pushes himself away from the wall and holds onto her hand, tugging her slightly behind him.

"I gotta show you something," he confesses.

He leads her around the corner. It's a slightly private alcove in the hallway of the morgue that has no doors, only a faint flickering light above them.

"Castle, what is it?" Beckett worries, due to the seriousness of his tone and his face. Her heart races and her palms are sweating. But she doesn't let go of his mutated hand. She needs his strength in the times like these. Reassurance that he is still there. That he is okay.

He lets her hand go, even when she doesn't want to disconnect from his touch. But she understands. She ends up just standing next to him, her arm touching his.

Castle doesn't say anything but his hands travel downwards to his pants and he unbuttons them. Beckett arches an eyebrow at him. But Castle shakes his head. It's no time for jokes.

He pulls down his zipper and eases his pants away, his fingers moving under the waistband of his boxers. Beckett is now eyeing his movements with great curiosity. This certainly wasn't what she was expecting him to do.

Castle motions with his head for him to come closer. She nods and snuggles tighter.

He pulls the waistband of the boxers away from his stomach and now Beckett sees it too.

There is a long moment of silence, before either of them says anything. Finally, Beckett draws in a short breath. "Shiny."

"Seriously?" Castle stares at her unbelievingly. "You are making _that_ joke right now? It's serious!"

"It's not a joke," Beckett defends herself, corners of her mouth rising a bit when she understands the double meaning of what she just said. "But," she stares back down again. "... it is luminescent…"

"I know!" He squeaks out. "What am I going to do?"

"I have no idea," Beckett sighs, stepping away from him and rubbing her nose in frustration. The situation is much worse than she anticipated. "Is this the first time …. how long has it been like this?"

"You didn't see my… uh… green lantern yesterday, did you?" Castle throws back at her, tucking his shirt back to his pants.

"No, no I didn't," Beckett shakes her head, thinking wildly how they got from last night's cosplay to him actually changing into some kind of a green monster. Right, only his hand has mutated for now and… well… his unit is glowing… but what will happen when the colour and the glow spreads all over to his body? What will become of him?

Suddenly she makes a connection between the morgue and his condition. "Castle? Did you start feeling pain after you saw Donnelly's corpse?"

"Yes?" he nods, not sure what should be the right answer.

"Donnelly's body was covered with some kind of strange chemical."

Castle nods again. He is not sure where she is going with this theory, but he plays along.

She continues. "You started to feel the pain right after you were exposed to it. Whatever is covering Donnelly's body must have something to do with your mutation."

Castle takes in a deep breath, trying to wrap his head around what she just said. Before he can open his mouth to ask Beckett something, she interrupts.

"Did your mutation spread?"

Castle nods, rolling up the sleeve again to show her his now green elbow. "It went from my wrist to my elbow within few minutes. I fear I will be green all over in a few hours."

"Oh, Castle," she sighs and crashes her body to his, wrapping her arms around him. He does the same, his newly formed claw digging into her back.

"Ow," Beckett whines.

"Sorry." Castle eases the grip of his right hand but keeps her close, not letting her go. They stand for few minutes, comforting each other.

Finally, Beckett breaks the silence. "We need to check out the place where Donnelly was found."

"Why?" Castle murmurs into her hair.

"Because whatever killed Donnelly is connected to your new abilities. I am sure of it! There must be a connection."

"Okay," he nods. "Do you have the address?"

"Yeah," Beckett answers, pushing her slightly away from his grasp, letting their lower bodies rest against each other. "Lanie gave it to me."

"Where did they find the body?" he enquires, sliding his good hand against her cheek, brushing her earlobe.

"61 2nd Avenue."

"Seriously?" His face is alert now. "Do you still have that paper we found in Donnelly's shop?"

Beckett furrows her brows in confusion but digs into her pocket, fishing out the tiny paper they found a few hours before. She places it into Castle's waiting hand.

He opens the wrinkled paper and beams a smile at her.

"Don't you see the connection?" he asks, turning the paper in his hands for her to see. '_61/2 SSSR'_

"Oooohh," Beckett breathes out. "61/2 That's the address!"

"There is definitely a connection here," he gesticulates wildly, flapping the paper in his hands. "It's the same damn address! I … wonder what the combination of letters means… _USSR_?"

Beckett grabs his hand and drags him from the dark corner. "Come on, we need to go."

* * *

Second Avenue is just around the corner from the Morgue building. For a second, Beckett thinks of ditching the car but quickly she reconsiders her first thought. The building shouldn't be far away, but it would take much more time if they would go on foot. And the time is what they don't have.

She starts the car when Castle plops himself onto the passenger seat and closes the door. She takes off from the parking spot, making her way from East 6th Street to Bowery and quickly turns back onto East 4th Street crosses the Second. When they reach the Avenue, Castle looks both ways and mutters, "It has to be here somewhere."

Beckett takes a gamble and turns her car to the right.

"Look, 65," he points to the doorway between two cafés. "It should be close."

"Yeah," Beckett sighs back to him. "Right there! Look!" She points at the garage door that has a big sign on top of it. The sign says _'Shoe Store & Shoe Repair'_

"_SSSR!"_ Castle yelps. "And here I was thinking it meant something of Soviet origin." Castle shakes his head as Beckett snorts a strangled laughter.

"Come on, let's check it out." Beckett opens the door of the car and steps out, Castle is already out on the sidewalk. Getting closer to the door, they hear weird sounds coming out of the shop. Beckett places a hand on his chest, signaling him to stop his approach. She takes out her gun and steps closer to the door, Castle just at her heels.

The garage door opens with a rattle and before their eyes can adjust to the darkness they hear a voice with heavy accent nearby.

"Mister Castle. I have been expecting you."

* * *

**A/N: Aaaand here you go, you have two chapters in one weekend! Crazy isn't it! I know, I am as surprised as you are. I told you I try. Hopefully I can write again soon, the story seems to be rolling in my head now and I need to write it down. *fingers crossed* **

**Thank you for my fast and furious betas. And you all – who have liked my work or reviewed it – LOVE YOU! Keep doing it! **

**Review? Thoughts? What will happen next? :O**


	10. Chapter 10 - Run for your life

**Chapter 10**

_**Run for your life **_

"_Mister Castle, I have been expecting you."_

A heavily accented dark voice ricochets off the walls of the huge warehouse. Castle and Beckett both freeze as they are greeted by the darkness of the room.

"Who's there?" Castle shouts into the blackness, holding onto Beckett and trying to push her behind him. He doesn't care that she carries a gun and is able to take perfect care of herself. Right now, with the superpowers, he is more powerful. He could actually protect her from evil forces.

Beckett, sensing the shift in their balance of power, moves behind him, still aiming the gun at the darkness, towards the voice.

"You don't know me, Mister Castle..." the voice carries a sense of smugness. The madman in the darkness is playing with them. Just playing.

"Who are you?" Castle barks again.

"Does it matter?" the voice replies again.

Before Castle can answer, they hear a growl in the background. Immediately after, the voice that spoke to them silences the beastly sounds. The growl turns into a small whine and the noises in the background stop.

"What the hell is going on in here?" Castle whispers to Beckett who is behind him, trying to see through the darkness.

"I don't know," she whispers back to him. "But … considering this is the last place Donnelly was, I would safely assume it has to be connected with his death and the chemicals that affected you…"

There is a click of a gun behind Beckett and she stops talking. Then he hears her gun fall to the ground in front of her.

"Beckett?" Castle whirls himself around to be greeted with a sight of slightly nervous Beckett at gunpoint. It can't be…. Jerry Tyson?

"Tyson?" he breathes out.

The man who holds the muzzle of a gun against Beckett's neck furrows his brows in the faint light that is sneaking in from the slightly opened door.

"Who the hell is Tyson?" he asks Castle, his voice lower than Tyson's and laced with a thick accent. Probably Eastern-European.

"You are not Tyson?" Castle is confused now. "Are you sure? You look like him," he blubbers, trying to buy some time to come up with a plan to save Beckett from the strangely familiar yet unfamiliar man. Castle shakes his head to clear his mind.

It has been only two weeks since Tyson tried to kill him and Beckett. It still haunts Castle, 3XK seeping into his dreams, poisoning everything. Beckett had helped him sweep his apartment. They'd found at least four bugs and three cameras in the loft, plus the transponders. Tyson had done a masterful job of keeping an eye on him. Castle despised 3XK for ruining the days he thought he was spending alone with Beckett - only to discover that Tyson had first-hand knowledge of how they worked together… in bed. Castle shudders as his focus returns to his current situation. He looks up again to face the man who holds his love at gunpoint.

He doesn't look like Jerry Tyson anymore. Instead, he looks like he could be Tyson's and Josh Davidson's love child. Ewww.

"What do you want?" Castle asks, trying to think of something … anything... to save her. He can't lose her again. He won't.

"I want ye to surrender," the foreigner spits out, twisting the gun into Beckett's neck.

"I… I..." Castle tries to sputter something. Castle isn't holding him at gunpoint, why is the man still holding Beckett at his mercy?

"I want you to not fight when I will own you."

_Own you? What?_

Beckett stares at Castle, her eyes big. She is mouthing something. What is she trying to say? He concentrates on her moving lips. '_Use….. the… powers'._

Uh, right.

He looks down at his hands. One green and scaled, one pink and ordinary. He has superpowers. Between his freak-out at the morgue and their arrival here, he had completely forgotten to use his freakish powers. Not that he needed to use them.

Castle narrows his eyes and looks back at the stranger.

"Not a chance," he yells at their captor as he lunges into action, focusing his mind on the gun.

Before anybody can react, the gun flies out of the Tyson-wannabe's hands, landing somewhere behind Castle. "Arghhh," the strange man yells in frustration when he discovers he is missing the gun. He seems shocked a split second, but not too long. He remains calm, almost as if he was expecting something like that to happen.

Beckett uses that moment to duck between some barrels that are standing against the wall.

"Come back!" the man yells at Beckett.

Castle releases a sigh of relief as he sees Beckett disappear behind some blue barrels. At least he thinks they are blue, since the light that seeps in the doorway is still faint. She... is safe for now. Somewhat.

"Leave her out of this!" Castle's voice echoes in the room, turning the stranger's attention back on him.

"Mister Castle," the man starts again. "I need you to stop right now. Or I will have to stop you!"

"How are you going to stop me?" Castle teases, averting his eyes to one of the wooden carts that stands against the wall. Concentrating his mind, he stares at the box. Suddenly, a piece comes off of it and flies in the direction of the strange man who is currently positioned between Castle and Beckett. The madman only has time to yelp before the piece of wood embeds itself in his thigh.

"Son of a bitch!" the man growls out, his hands darting to his leg. He grits his teeth and pulls the piece of wood out. Blood gushes out of the open wound. To Castle's utter shock, the blood isn't the usual dark red. Instead, the blood that pools around the feet of the stranger is dark green.

Castle just stares at him for a second, not knowing if he should try to escape or continue fighting. He catches a glimpse of Beckett at the door. She has been able to sneak around behind the barrels and is almost out of the door, but she has stopped her movements to watch the green liquid ooze from the man.

"Beckett, get out of here!" Castle growls, suddenly feeling a sharp pain surging through his body. It feels strangely familiar. He knows it. He felt the same pain in the morgue when they were looking over Donnelly's body.

This isn't right.

"Castle, come on!" Beckett shouts to Castle, opening the door and letting the daylight in.

"Beckett..." he wheezes out between the surges of pain.

She waves to Castle to hurry up.

He tries to move, but it's hard. His body feels like lead.

They both startle as the injured man starts to talk again.

"Do ya really think you can go?" the man laughs, taunting him further. "You can't even move."

"Castle," Beckett's voice is getting urgent. "Come on!"

He needs to get out of here. Fast.

"I'm coming!" He takes a few hurried steps towards the door. He discovers than he can move himself better as he gets farther away from the stranger. He is almost at the door - he can see the daylight behind her. She should be moving away from the door, heading to the car. But she is just standing there.

_Why is she still standing there? Why…_

Beckett steps back into the room. Slowly. And then Castle notices what made her reconsider her escape.

He stops moving before he collides with her.

Another man enters behind Beckett. Also carrying a gun. And the gun is aimed at the back of her head.

"Sorry, folks," the new addition speaks. "I don't want to ruin your fun. But she has seen too much. She must stay here."

"Ivar!" the injured man cries a little bit too enthusiastically at his partner coming through the door. "Oh, thank god!" he mumbles in pain, before he passes out. His body crumples onto itself and lands on the concrete floor with a thud.

Castle turns his attention from the body lying in the green goo back to the man standing behind Beckett. This man is different. He has lighter hair and blue intense eyes. Castle swears he has seen him somewhere before. He doesn't remember where but… he seems so familiar.

"I am sorry, Mister Castle, for the inconvenience," the man says. "My friend can be rude sometimes," he presses the muzzle of his gun to back of Beckett's neck. "But make yourself comfortable. Looks like you are not going anywhere."

Castle breathes out and closes his eyes in frustration. He failed again. He shakes his head and tries to gather his thoughts. _Enough. What the hell is going on here? And who the hell is the man who looks like somebody from the Game of Thrones… _His eyes fly open when he realises why he looks so familiar. Joffrey!

"What do you want from us?" Castle demands.

"Oh, Mister Castle," the Joffrey look-alike smiles wickedly. "You have no idea, do you?"

"No idea of what?" Castle only furrows his brows in confusion, staring at the man.

"Move," the blonde man shouts to Beckett. She takes one more step closer to Castle.

Castle watches her move closer to him. He can tell that she doesn't like the situation. Of course. When has Beckett liked being at gunpoint? Never. Nobody really likes it. But for Beckett, she is being unusually silent. That makes Castle a little bit nervous. Something is wrong with her.

But she can't do anything other than what her captor says to her. So, she moves. And the man moves behind her.

The two stop a few feet before they are within Castle's reach. Castle tries to concentrate to his powers. Pull off the same trick he managed to do with the first man. But somehow his powers are not working in this place. It's really hard to concentrate his mental power to make something move. He can't move objects. He can't see through things anymore. Hell, he can't even hear anything in the background, not to mention him trying to lunge into the captor with his super speed. Why does nothing work in here? Is that something to do with the green blood? What is going on in this strange place?

Castle narrows his eyes and tries really hard to move the gun away with his mental powers. But it doesn't move. Not even an inch.

The Joffrey-ish man smiles again. "See you real soon."

Castle and Beckett's eyes meet in confusion before a sharp pain hits them both. Beckett looks down at her leg and notes the source of the pain. A little dart has just embedded itself into her leg.

Castle watches Beckett's eyes as they roll back and she falls to the ground. He wants to lunge himself at her but he sees the Joffrey lookalike now pointing the gun at him.

"_What...?"_ he whispers before the heavy wave of sleepiness hits him and everything goes black.

* * *

**A/N: Thank you all. For reading. Reviewing. I love every single piece of your mind you give me. And you are all usually so gracious. I really love you guys. That you have still reading this story, even though I lack of updates. Seriously. Thank you! I love you for staying with me. **

**My betas. I love to hate you and hate to love you. **

**How about a review? What do you think is happening, where is this going? How do you like it****?**


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